Stavros Niarchos Foundation donating 174 augmented and intensive care beds

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced the implementation on Friday of a 16.4-million-euro grant to provide Greek hospitals with 174 new augmented and intensive care beds.

The donation, which had been announced last May, stands to benefit 15 public hospitals and apart from the beds and their equipment, also includes a five-year training program for the doctors and nurses manning them.

The new units will be delivered in batches starting at the end of December and through February, the foundation said.

They are expected to serve more than 6,500 patients a year and come at a particularly critical juncture for Greece’s public health system, which is struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

The biggest beneficiaries of the grant will be the Ippokrateio Hospital in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, with a total of 38 new beds, followed by the capital’s Evangelismos Hospital with 33 and the KAT trauma hospital with 30.